Most of us love indulging in a tasty burger, but there’s no denying they have a reputation for being bad for us. Luckily, one Australian restaurant is working hard to overturn that belief.
Grill’d are known as being the nation’s healthy burger alternative, but there’s more to their burgers than just the kilojoule count. Grill’d serve ‘Burgers from a Better Place’, and that’s because of their commitment to be ‘better for you, for locals and for Mother Earth’.
The RSPCA has been proud to work with Grill’d since 2016 with both their schnitzel burger using RSPCA Approved chicken and pork belly burgers using RSPCA Approved pork. However, they’ve been striving to be ‘better’ long before that. We had the opportunity to chat with the team at Grill’d and here are three big ways they are making burgers better for everyone:
Ethically-sourcing ingredients
More and more of us are taking an interest in where our food comes from. The Grill’d food journey is described as being from ‘farm to fingers’, and it’s a statement they don’t take lightly. Their menu offers a range of higher welfare meat options along with vegetarian and vegan options.
“It’s not just about what we’re eating, but where it has come from,” says a representative from Grill’d. “With so much ‘fake news’ around ethical sourcing, the trust we have from our customers to source the best quality produce is an important responsibility.”
The RSPCA believes that you can eat meat and eggs and still care about animals, it’s a belief we share jointly with Grill’d. Which is why they source free range beef, lamb and eggs as well as RSPCA Approved chicken and pork belly.
On RSPCA Approved farms, animals are farmed in a way that allows them to express their natural behaviours. For chickens, this means they have more space, better lighting and are encouraged to perch, dustbathe and forage; while pigs have access to the outdoors, with room to play, root around with their snouts, socialise with other pigs and have comfortable bedding to rest.
Knowing the RSPCA’s detailed animal welfare standards gave Grill’d the confidence that they were working with farmers and suppliers that truly cared about their animals. Being RSPCA Approved is more than just a marketing term. Farms in the scheme must meet the RSPCA’s standards and undergo regular on-farm assessments.
The restaurant has also been using cage-free eggs for their burgers since the beginning. And since 2015, every other product containing eggs (including their famous mayos and Low Carb SuperBun) is also proudly cage-free. Given that around half of all the eggs produced in Australia go into restaurants, catering and food manufacturing with the vast majority of these eggs coming from cage systems, the fact that Grill’d has made the huge effort to be completely cage-free is a big deal. Hooray for happy hens!
Supporting good causes
How can you feel guilty about enjoying a burger when you’re also helping your local community at the same time?
If you’ve ever been inside a Grill’d restaurant, you’ll probably be familiar with their Local Matters initiative. Every month, each restaurant picks three local community groups to support. The three groups are assigned a jar each, and customers are given tokens which they can place in the jars. At the end of the month, $500 is split between the groups – the one with the most tokens receives $300, while the other two receive $100 each. Since starting in 2011, the community donation program has raised over $4 million for more than 20,000 community groups around the country!
“One of our original company mantras is that ‘we do what’s right, not what’s easy’,” says Grill’d. This is one of the reasons why the restaurant works with not-profit organisations to raise awareness around important issues. In 2017, Grill’d partnered with the RSPCA to raise awareness about the suffering of hens confined to battery cages as part of the RSPCA’s End the Battery Cage campaign. Thousands of caring, burger loving Australians added their name to Grill’d’s call to end battery cages. These names contributed to the largest response ever received by an Australian animal welfare public consultation!
Caring for the environment
Grilld’s ‘Burgers from a Better Place’ ethos also drives their focus on being environmentally friendly.
“We’re always thinking bigger and doing better to further reduce our footprint,” says Grill’d. “Sustainability is a driving factor in our decision making, with everything from the local sourcing of our ingredients to the recycled furnishings in our restaurants.”
As part of their green thinking, Grill’d is now plastic-straw free, saving 1.6 million black plastic straws from ending up in landfill annually. They work with suppliers local to their restaurants to ensure that their food distribution footprint is small, and even recycle their cooking oil into biodiesel. Each little change makes a big difference for our planet.
Forget about thinking of burgers as a treat for a cheat day. With Grill’d working hard to offer fresh, healthy and ethically sourced food in a sustainable way, you can feel good about what you’re eating and where it’s come from, a Better Place.
Check out the menu for yourself and find your nearest Grill’d.
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Want more? 5 restaurants you’ll know and love with RSPCA Approved on the menu and A day in the life of an RSPCA Assessor
